


Something About Us

by PrinceSkylar



Series: Naruto Rare pairs for the Soul [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Crush, Awkward Flirting, Bisexual Uzumaki Naruto, Bisexual Yamanaka Ino, Couch Cuddles, Crushes, F/M, Getting Together, Jogging, NaruIno, Naruto Rare Pairs, Naruto works out, Neighbors, Netflix and Chill, Rare Pairings, Sakura is only mentioned, Unnamed Ex - Freeform, awkward uzumaki naruto, inonaru, naruto rare pair, oh my god they were neighbors, rare pairs, sorta - Freeform, theyre both bisexual i dont make the rules, workout buddies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:13:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26998741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceSkylar/pseuds/PrinceSkylar
Summary: Naruto's crushing. Hard. Like really, really hard. Ino was, without a doubt, the most wonderful girl he'd ever hung out with. Now, if only he could figure out how to ask her out...
Relationships: Uzumaki Naruto/Yamanaka Ino
Series: Naruto Rare pairs for the Soul [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970575
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Something About Us

**Author's Note:**

> I do nothing but write Naruto Rarepairs. Ino/Naruto is a huge guilty pleasure of mine. Blond hottie rights, am I right?

Today was the day. He had, of course, said that to himself every morning for the last week and a half but that wasn’t important.  _ Today _ was the day. It had to be because he was honestly driving himself insane at this rate. Naruto was not known for his patience, though he  _ was  _ known to occasionally procrastinate important things when they seemed stressful. And this was very, very stressful. 

You could only ask out the gorgeous girl from down the hall, the one that took her morning jogs with you, once. Once and only once because if she said no? Well, then there’d be no second chances. Ino was, for lack of better word, intimidating at best. But Naruto liked that. He actually  _ really  _ liked it. 

He’d met Ino a few months ago when he first moved into his apartment. He’d just broken up with his ex boyfriend and was looking for his own space to grow and adjust and this little one bedroom apartment had been great. It was right around the corner from the grocery store he liked, was near a nice big park, and was just two blocks away from the daycare he worked at when he wasn’t busy with school work. He was on the fast track to becoming a pediatrician and finally having his own space after his not so great break up was a blessing. It was a new start, which was why he had decided to pick up working out again. 

Now it’s not that Naruto hated working out. He actually had loved it when he’d been doing it before. He had a gym membership and everything! But he’d been stretched super thin before he moved; he and his boyfriend had lived so far away from everything and only had one car (Naruto’s car, at that) that they shared between the both of them. Time to work out just seemed to slip away. But now everything was within walking distance and Naruto actually had a lot more time on his hands. And the neighborhood was great! So, he started working out at the gym two or three times a week with his best friend, Sakura, and tried to jog a couple times a week, too. That was how he’d met Ino Yamanaka. 

Tugging on his sneakers Naruto glanced towards the clock on the wall. Barely six-thirty. He had a few more minutes; good. He shuffled to his kitchen, opening up his fridge and pulling out two cold bottles of water; one for himself and one for Ino, who always seemed to forget her own. 

Ino had been a rather unexpected friend. Naruto had crossed paths with her here and there in the laundry room or in the hall. He’d even helped her bring her groceries inside a few times when he’d seen her trying to carry dozens of bags in on her own. He hadn’t thought much of her aside from the realization that she was...hot. Like, really hot? She had long platinum blonde hair that she usually wore out of her face, either in a high ponytail or a tight braid. She was tall, too, which was  _ not  _ something he had expected to be into. But they’d barely talked aside from the casual chatter neighbors usually had with each other; gossip about the downstairs neighbors, small comments about the weather. They hadn’t exactly been friends but they were civil and, well, if he could be civil with the hot girl down the hall then Naruto counted that as a win.

But then he had decided to start jogging in the early mornings and that was when he’d crossed paths with her again. He sort of wanted to blame his libido for the way Ino in her tight fitting work out leggings had made him feel. He’d only seen her in baggy sweats and tank tops up until then and while she was absolutely gorgeous just like that, seeing her in leggings and a sports bra had made Naruto’s face heat up in mere moments. 

Just thinking about it now made Naruto want to groan. Gods, he’d been such a dweeb about it. But Ino didn’t seem put off at all and actually seemed surprised Naruto was up as early as her to jog. And so, after Naruto had managed to control his heart rate, he’d offered to join her on her usual jogging route with the sly excuse of “ _ You probably know the best route anyways _ .”

And that was how he and Ino had become friends. They jogged together early in the mornings about three or four times a week before parting ways to get ready for work and school, and then they usually hung out at Ino’s apartment or Naruto’s if neither of them were too tired. Which Naruto didn’t mind at all. 

His two cold water bottles tucked under his arm Naruto finally made his way out of his apartment. Ah, and just in time! Ino was just stepping out of hers as well, locking the door before she looked over, grinning as soon as her blue eyes landed on Naruto’s approaching form. “Morning.”

She was dressed in purple leggings today. Oh, the  _ lavender  _ ones to be more specific. Naruto...really liked the lavender ones, okay? They clung tightly to her body in a way that drove him nuts; he could appreciate a nice ass in a pair of leggings, okay? And Ino had an ass that looked good in  _ anything _ . He’d seen her in sweats, jeans, leggings and even some skirts. She just...looked good in everything and Naruto was a bisexual disaster on the best of days. 

“Morning,” He flashed her a grin, holding out one of the water bottles for her. “Here, it’s nice and cold.”

“You’re such a sweetie,” Ino took the bottle from him and smiled right back at him. “Are we feeling up to a long route or a short one today?”

“I don’t have plans today, actually,” Naruto rolled his shoulders in a shrug. “So we can do a long route if you’re game?”

“Always am,” Ino winked at him, leading him down the hall and down the stairs.

Naruto had learned a lot about Ino after they’d become jogging buddies. Ino was currently going to school to become a child psychiatrist which had absolutely taken Naruto by surprise. But Ino loved kids, she had told him, and wanted to do something that could help children. “ _ Childhood _ ,” She had once told him. “ _ Is where a lot of early trauma and fears can begin. I want to be able to help children understand and overcome that. Healthy kids make healthy and happy adults _ .”

Naruto had a soft spot for kids himself so his heart had absolutely soared when he found that out about her. She also worked part time at a flower shop her parents owned a couple blocks away which Naruto had thought was very fitting of her. She was really close with her parents which was another plus in Naruto’s book. He, himself, had been practically glued to his parents for his whole childhood. Hell, he still was. He only lived about half an hour from them. 

“How did work go yesterday?” Ino’s voice didn’t waver once, despite the jogging. “I was going to call you last night but I was catching up on homework so I didn’t have time.”

“No worries,” Naruto laughed a little, the cold morning air making his skin tingle as they started on their usual path, towards the park. “It was alright. One of the little girls threw a toy car at another little girl so that was something. Lot’s of crying, but nothing a stern scolding and a hug from their favorite teacher, me, couldn’t fix.”

Naruto absolutely loved working at the daycare, if he were to be honest. Little kids were a handful, sure, but they had such big personalities. He adored it.

Ino gave a small laugh from his side. “Well, of course! You make everything better.” She told him. “The kids adore you. But I’m glad it was an easy day aside from that. No puking fits like last week?”

Naruto shuddered, nose wrinkling in mild disgust as he frowned a bit. “No, thank god. No puking fits. Just throwing toys and pulling hair. You know, the easy stuff.” He chuckled a little bit, offering a friendly smile at a woman jogging past them with her dog. “What about you? Anything exciting at the shop?”

“Hardly,” Ino scoffed. Naruto could just imagine the little roll of her eyes that followed. “I mean a customer’s giant horse sized dog knocked down a whole shelf of Carnations which absolutely sucked but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Just a lot of dirt to sweep up.” She replied casually. “Oh! But since it’s getting cold out we’re going to have Winter Jasmines out, and probably more Orchids! I’m excited about that.”

Naruto was sure he could listen to Ino talk about flowers for an eternity. “Yeah? I’ll swing by soon then and you can show me.” He offered with a small grin. “Maybe you can convince me to buy more plants.”

Naruto had never been much of a plant guy before he’d crossed paths with Ino. But she had convinced him to get a few small things, a spider plant here and a couple of small succulents. Easy stuff that he actually found himself being rather fond of when he realized that, with Ino’s help, he wasn’t going to kill them. 

“Oh, you know how much I love convincing you to buy plants.” Ino giggled softly. “But yeah, swing by some time. Mom and Dad would love to see you, anyways.”

Ino’s parents actually...genuinely enjoyed when Naruto came around? Which he wasn’t going to question, of course. Ino had met his parents a couple weeks ago, too, when his mom and dad had swung by for a visit. They had been absolutely enamoured with her which...probably didn’t help Naruto’s internal freak out about asking her out. Hell, what if he asked her out and she said no? How was he going to tell his dear old parents?

He cleared his throat a little bit as they rounded a corner, entering the park. It was still pretty empty, save some dog walkers and other joggers trying to get their workout in before the city woke up properly. He spared a glance at the young woman jogging beside him, taking in her concentrated expression for a moment before he looked back ahead of them. “If you’re free after this, wanna hang at my place?” He asked after a moment of comfortable silence. “We can watch one of those scary movies we keep saying to my netflix and never watching.”

“Yeah, actually, that sounds good.” When Naruto glanced back at her Ino was shooting him a wide grin, one that lit up her whole face.

_ Oh.  _ Naruto would never emotionally recover if she turned him down. He might just have to become a hermit. He’d collect plants in her memory and just suffer.

...Okay, that was a little dramatic. If she turned him down he knew he’d laugh it off and keep being her friend no matter what. But it would still hurt, of course. He honestly hadn’t even expected to want to date anyone yet. His break up had been messy and made him feel all kinds of bad. His original plan had been to focus on school and work and just let himself grow. But then Ino had come into his life and Naruto was a very, very weak man.

“Hey, I’m thinking of joining the gym you go to.” Ino chirped after a second as they took a small pause. They were both only panting lightly, stopping in the center of the park for a quick breather. 

Naruto ran a hand through his hair, arching a curious eyebrow at her. “Yeah?” He smiled a little, deciding  _ not  _ to dwell too long on the mental image of Ino lifting weights. The girl didn’t look it but she was...really strong. Naruto wasn’t sure he’d survive watching her lift weights. “Sakura’s been pestering you about it, hasn’t she?”

“Only a little,” Ino admitted with a soft laugh, unscrewing the lid of her water bottle and taking a drink. Naruto watched her, sipping his own water for the sake of his own sanity as he watched her wipe her lips with the back of her hand. “But I also thought it would be fun, though. My ex never let me work out like that. With the whole weight lifting and stuff. He said it was weird if I had more muscle than him.”

A coward. An absolute fucking coward. Naruto would kill whoever this ex was. Every time Ino mentioned him Naruto had another reason to kick the guy's ass. He huffed a little bit as he screwed the lid back onto his water bottle. “Okay, well, that’s the same ex that tried to make you feel bad everytime you ate. You know, a basic human function.” He scowled a little. “He’s stupid. A girl with muscles? What’s not to like about that? If you want to do it then do it! Sakura would love another gym buddy for the days I can’t make it.”

He could have sworn he saw the girl’s face flush just a little. She gave a soft laugh and nodded. “So passionate about this.” She teased lightly. “But alright, I think I will.” She reached out, her hand gently squeezing Naruto’s bicep to feel his muscle there. “I mean I don’t know if I’ll get as strong as  _ you  _ but we’ll see.”

Was...was she flirting? Naruto couldn’t tell. Ugh!

He flashed her a wide grin, though, and nodded. “We’ll see.” He echoed, desperately wanting to reach for his hand as it slid off his arm. “But hey! We could go together some time, too. I usually focus more on legs and stuff but I’ll totally spot you when you do weights.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that.” She warned with a playful wink. “Come on, we got two laps around the park before we can go home.”

It was, by far, the most painful two laps of Naruto’s life. Which was saying a lot considering he worked out with Sakura, a human tank of a woman most days. But his head was just all over the place. He didn’t want to over think asking her out and risk screwing it up. But if he wasn’t thinking about that he was thinking about Ino at the gym with him. Ino lifting weights. Ino covered in sweat, her hair sticking to the sides of her face. Gasping to catch her breath…

Ugh. Girls were too much for him sometimes. Or maybe Ino was just too much for him. Everything she did made him want to kiss the life out of her. Or just hold her hand...yeah, that would always be nice, too.

They were returning to his apartment after an eternity of jogging, Naruto leading her in and kicking his shoes off at the door. “Do you want to shower?” He asked her, shutting the door once they were both inside. “I’ve got sweats and t-shirts you can borrow if you want.”

“That’s...a good idea, actually.” Ino murmured. 

Naruto turned around to see her staring at him already, watching him. He blinked in surprise and hesitated for a second, taking a step closer. “What’s up? You know where the bathroom is, Ino.” He forced out a small, awkward laugh.

Ino blinked at him and then laughed too, but her laugh sounded a little forced. She waved a hand at him, hurrying in the direction of the small hallway. “Yeah, yeah! Sorry, I sort of spaced out!”

Naruto stared after her in confusion, biting his lip as he heard the bathroom door close. Had...something happened? No, of course not. They’d only been inside the apartment for three minutes, at the most! Maybe he was over thinking it and she really had spaced out? Hopefully…

Naruto changed his clothes while he had a moment alone. He changed into a pair of clean sweats and a black tank top. Okay, so maybe he was putting his arm muscles on display in hopes of drawing her in more. Can’t blame a guy for trying, anyways. 

He snatched one of the many blankets he owned off his bed and brought it out to the living room, laying it on the back of the couch. Knowing Ino she’d want a blanket half way through the movie so Naruto always tried to stay prepared. He switched on his TV, bringing up netflix and starting to aimlessly look through the dozens of scary movies they had saved. Naruto was actually a bit of a chicken when it came to scary movies but Ino loved them. They were less scary with her around, at least, and it was sort of fun to get scared in the safety of his own home with a friend beside him. Besides, if it was a monster movie he could appreciate those a little more than the ghost movies. Ghost and demon movies scared him. Slasher films? Those were okay, if they were the old classics…

He still hadn’t decided on a movie when he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening a couple minutes later. He listened, hearing Ino scurrying into Naruto’s room to find something to wear. He smiled a little to himself and finally decided on a random movie. Some sort of monster movie taking place in the woods. Ah, how original. 

“Hey, Ino, I picked a monster movie!” Naruto called, stretching out a little where he was sitting. “Is that okay?”

“That’s fine!” Ino called back to him. “As long as it’s not zombies!”

“Nope, no zombies!” Naruto called back with a small smile tugging at his lips. “It’s some big mysterious monster chasing a group of friends in the woods!”

“Oh, spooky.” Ino emerged from the hall, then, and Naruto looked over at her only to feel his face heat up and his heart skip a beat. 

Ino wore one of Naruto’s t-shirts, an old black one that didn’t even fit him anymore. It fit her just right, though, and reached to her mid-thigh area. For the smallest of moments Naruto was afraid that she had nothing on under it but as she started walking towards the couch Naruto caught a glimpse of his orange boxers she had stolen. Thank god! Ino strode over to the couch and plopped down next to Naruto, leaning heavily into him. Her still wet hair was down, tumbling far past her shoulders. Naruto sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “You can’t steal those boxers.”

“I’ll bring them back,” Ino assured him with a casual wave of her hand. “The boxers you have are always so comfy, anyways.”’

“Thief.” Naruto scolded with no real venom in his tone. “You still have my nice purple pair, too, you know.”

“I know, I slept in them last night.” Ino laughed.

Naruto’s face heated up again and he was quick to return his attention to the movie. Christ, how was he ever going to do this? 

He had thought that focusing on the movie would help, but it seemed he couldn’t even do that. Ino was warm against his side, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder as if it belonged there. One of her hands had settled very gently on Naruto’s upper thigh somewhere during the first half hour of the movie and was unmoving, a tempting and terrifying warmth that had his heart hammering away in his chest. He could barely focus on the movie at all! The monster had already killed two people and he couldn’t even remember how. 

Ugh!

“Hey, Ino,” He finally reached for the remote, pausing the movie. He sat up a little and turned to face her, wincing just a little at the girl’s confused and almost worried expression. “I uh...I need to talk to you for a second.”

“Okay,” Ino gave a small nod, one hand coming up to brush a few stray strands of hair out of her face. “What’s up?”

Naruto bit his lip for a second as he eyed her, trying desperately to place the words in his head. “I...Well…” He sighed loudly, one hand rubbing at his face. “I don’t know how to say it.”

“Then just say it,” Ino urged gently, her hand gently prying Naruto’s away from his face. When their eyes met she smiled, just a little, despite still looking concerned and confused. “Just...whatever it is, say it. You know you can tell me anything, Naruto.”

Naruto heaved a loud sigh and nodded. “Right…” He nodded one more time, this time more to himself than to her, and he sat up straighter, clearing his throat. “Ino I...like you. Like, I  _ really  _ like you. And I...well...I wanted to ask if maybe you’d...want to go out with me.” God, just saying it out loud made him want to crawl into a hole. “You don’t have to say yes! I...You’re an awesome woman, Ino, and even if you don’t want to go out with me I’d still really love to be your friend if-”

“Oh my god.”

Naruto blinked when Ino cut him off, hesitating. “Ino?”

Ino laughed loudly but before Naruto could even think to be embarrassed she was sliding into his lap. Naruto blushed  _ hard  _ as his hands settled on her hips and he looked up at her with wide blue eyes. “Uh, is this a yes…?”

“You’re such a dummy,” She scolded gently, leaning down to press her lips to his cheek in the softest kiss he had ever received. “I’ve been sending you signals for ages!”

Naruto gawked at her and then scoffed. “Well, then they weren’t very good ones! I didn’t even know!”

“Naruto, I felt your  _ bicep _ .” She snickered softly, fingers gently stroking through Naruto’s blond hair. “That’s like, the oldest trick in the book.”

“Well, then I never read that book.” Naruto huffed softly at her. His expression softened, though, and he smiled warmly up at her. “You really want to go out with me?” He asked her quietly, one of his thumbs rubbing gently at her hip through the orange boxers. 

“More than anything.” Ino replied softly, nodding a little bit. “Like, I’ve felt like a gushing school girl ever since we started hanging out.” The hand in Naruto’s hair drifted down to his cheek, cupping his cheek gently. “I was honestly getting ready to ask you myself.”

“Ah, that’s why you’re in the boxers, huh?” He teased, leaning into the hand on his face a little. “Teasing me in hopes that I’d ask you out?”

“Yes, actually.” Ino giggled, lip caught between her teeth for a moment. “Now, shut up and kiss me before we  _ both _ lose our minds.”

Oh, Naruto could absolutely do that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Kudos are always appreciated.


End file.
